While flicking through my App.net timeline last week, I stumbled across a post by Guido Osorios which led me to reading about his reasons for downgrading his account on App.net to the free account.

I hate the fact that I originally payed for a great social API that didn’t hold up well at all. A little over a year has passed since its beginning, and so much about App.net permanently changed, and in my experience, it did for the bad. Sure, it may have hundreds of thousands of registered users now, but most of what made App.net different is long gone — I haven’t discovered a single person in months by now.

— Downgrading App.net by Guido Osorios

While I don't agree with Guido's comment about the direction that the API is taking, I do agree with his concern about finding people on App.net.

I am also finding it increasingly difficult to find people. With the introduction of PourOver, the number of feed accounts have risen and will likely continue. Having these types of accounts are great for members of App.net, but it would be nice to be able to search for just people in Alpha and not have any bot or feed accounts show up.

Maybe it's time for a search directory of just people accounts on App.net?

It would be great to have more people to follow on App.net especially some people I miss from Twitter, but that can only happen if more people join. Now that we have free accounts for people to try it out, I thought there would have been an influx of people but alas it seems that most people are happy to stay on Twitter.